When life gives you lemons
by boootylicious
Summary: When life gives you lemons… make lemonade: Carlisle Cullen has been around for a while. He's living with the Volturi, and that certainly keeps him on his toes, but is that really enough anymore? A one-shot with my take on how Carlisle first got into medicine.


When life gives you lemons...

**Title:** When life gives you lemons…  
**Author:** bootylicious  
**Rating:** k  
**Category:** maybe a little angst  
**Prompt:** I actually used a prompt from an old round of the 'twilight twenty five', it was round seven if anyone wants to check it out. The title comes from it too: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  
**Summary:** Description: When life gives you lemons… make lemonade: Carlisle Cullen has been around for a while. He's living with the Volturi, and that certainly keeps him on his toes, but is that really enough anymore? A one-shot with my take on how Carlisle first got into medicine.  
**Warnings:** no warnings for this one, unless you don't like reading about people getting sick or dying.  
**Notes:** This is unbetaed, so if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes, or think of anything that could improve it, please review and tell me! Ta xx

The time of this is a bit iffy, it starts around the time when Carlisle was living with the Volturi, and ends around 1918 when Carlisle changed Edward.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own twilight, Stephanie Meyer does.

Carlisle POV

Carlisle Cullen was _bored. _He had long ago grown immune to the scent of human blood, but now, nothing in life (or un-life, he supposed) presented a challenge to him. He had the infinite brain capacity, and an endless amount of time, to do anything. But the question was: what? He couldn't go outside during the day, so that ruled out a lot of things. And he could hardly while away the long days with sleep. So he was left to wander the streets of Volterra by night, and leave the city every other week to hunt – animals of course.

It was during one such night of wandering that he found his calling.

He lurked in the many alleyways that riddled the ancient town of Volterra, not in the mood for human or vampire company, or to watch the humans doing the many things from which he was forever bared. As he turned a corner, he smelt human blood. This was of course normal in a town populated by humans, but the smell of _spilt_ blood was more unusual. He hurried round two corners and halfway up a narrow flight of steps between two houses, and it was there he found her.

A human woman lay at an odd angle across the steps, and it was her blood Carlisle had caught the scent of. His sharp eyes noticed one of her shoes had broken at the strap, which must have caused her to fall. The ankle of the same foot was showing the minute early signs of a nasty sprain. From where the scent of blood was most concentrated, he could tell she had hit her head, and this was where she was bleeding from.

He held the ankle between his hands, hoping the extreme cold of his skin would work similarly to ice, and would prevent it from swelling. He thought of what he could do, the hospital was on the other side of the city and she would certainly be the worse for wear by the time he got her there, the journey was miles long through small alleyways, up steep staircases and through the main town plaza, where he knew there was some sort of gathering for the humans that night. Carrying her past in this state would certainly cause a stir. After a moment, the answer came to him, and he gathered her into his arms. He jumped, and landed lightly on the roof of the nearest building. He ran as fast as his vampire speed would allow him, and in moments he had made the journey to the hospital.

He stayed and watched as they set her ankle in a brace and carefully bandaged her head. As he watched, Carlisle was fascinated by everything he saw, and found himself wanting to help. He wanted to do for humans what these men were doing, and suddenly, Carlisle knew what he could do with the endless time he had on his hands.

Years later, Carlisle was working in a hospital. Having completed his study on medicine, he was apprentice to Dr Salvatore at the hospital in Volterra. During the daylight hours when he could not venture outside, he continued to help with Volturi business, and by night, he fulfilled the desire that had filled him with new purpose.

Dr Salvatore nodded at him to follow, and led him down a corridor to where a new family of influenza patients had been brought in that night. There were so many people that needed his help, Carlisle found himself reluctant to leave each time morning came, but he satisfied himself by doing as much as he could for the hundreds who inundated the hospital wards.

As they entered the ward, Carlisle could hear the weak heart beats of the humans in the beds, and he smelt the disease in the air. Dr Salvatore walked over to a bed in the corner in the corner where a weary mother sat watching over her son. They were both very ill, and the son seemed close to death. Surely his heart was not meant to beat so irregularly?

"These are the Mason family. The son, Edward got influenza a few weeks ago, but his mother tried to nurse him herself, the poor thing. We checked her when she arrived, and she seems to have caught it from him."

Carlisle looked down at the young man's face, and was struck by the unfairness of human illness. He had never thought much of it before he was bitten, but now he was becoming a doctor he was so much more aware of it. Humans were so fragile, especially the young and the old- and especially in comparison to himself and those like him, who were all but invincible. The boy's eyes fluttered open and his green eyes glittered feverishly. His face was so young, so pure; Carlisle could understand why his mother took such risks with her own health to care for him. And he longed for a son of his own. He got so lonely sometimes. He was well aware that his lifestyle choices were not shared among many vampires, and there were many in the Volturi guard who resented him for it – he was a freak among those who were already freaks. He looked into the face of the ill young man once more, and as their eyes met, his decision was made. Edward Mason was dying, so was his mother. With all the deaths going on, he would not be missed by the humans. But if his theory was correct, Edward could be saved.

_Edward, it's a good name_, he thought, _Edward Cullen, my son_.

A/N: Heyy, I hope you liked the story, Please review and tell me what you thought of it, and I will love you forever! Even if you didn't like it, please tell me what was wrong so I can improve. Thanks for reading!

Amy out xx


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